Affidavits to confirm lived with spouse before getting married?

[daisy1977]

Hi Everyone,
I am new to this forum and it seems very informative. I just had a quick question, and have been unable to find answers elsewhere.

My situation is as follows:

I am a Canadian citizen, born and raised, and met my now-husband in Ireland, while I was there studying medicine. We dated for 2 years, of which we lived together for a year and a half (we knew each other for 2 years before we dated, that's why we moved in together so quickly!) He proposed in April of this year, and we were married in June in Canada. He had to return to Ireland, where he is working as a doctor, and I stayed here, to start work as a doctor. My question is this - we have provided an endless amount of information to prove that our relationship is genuine: cards, a detailed story of our relationship, plane tickets from trips we took together, pictures from the course of our relationship and of the civil ceremony (it was a very small ceremony, due to a recent death in the family), but I am now being told by my lawyer that I have to provide affidavits from friends in Ireland to prove that we lived together. Is this necessary, especially since we are now married? Reason being, only our close family and friends know about the civil ceremony, since we will be having a more traditional wedding ceremony next summer. As well, we don't have any bills or a lease with both our names on it - he moved in with my roommate and I mid-year, and the lease had already been signed, bills set-up, etc. We could have changed the names on the lease, but the landlord would have likely increased our rent!

any help would be much appreciated!

 

[matthewc]

Affidavits (statutory declarations) from friends help, but they're only one of various types of evidence you can use to show you have a genuine, continuing relationship. See OP2 sections 5.25, 5.26. Also, anything in 5.35 that you have showing you lived together helps, although since you are married, proving you lived together is not strictly necessary in order to qualify; it does help though.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/op/op02-eng.pdf

 

[canadianwoman]

I'd try to get a letter from the roommate stating you were living there with your boyfriend. One letter should be enough with the other proof you have.

 

[RobsLuv]

Get a new lawyer! This one should know that spouses are not required to prove they've lived together in order to be eligible to submit an application for permanent residence. Only couples applying as common-law partners are required to submit proof of co-habitation - and, in that case, letters from friends/family are only useful when there is a lack of substantial "hard" proof like joint lease agreements, bank statements, etc. So even for common-law sponsorships, letters from friends and family can be too subjective to be used if they're the only evidence.

Your lawyer may be suggesting this to help support your genuine relationship - but "genuine relationship" is about demonstrating that the relationship was not just entered into in order to facilitate the foreign national's entry into Canada. You already have plenty of the proper types of evidences of that in the supporting evidences of the development and continuing nature of your relationship - both before and after your marriage.

 

[smrty]

all of this info is making me nervous..

should i send in more information?
we just got the AOR

 

[TheHal]

I am nervous about this too, we are in the final stages of combining information. We have lived together for the past 3 years, and have had joint bank accounts for the entire time, however when we moved here in 2008, I signed the lease as the only person, due to my future spouse being out of wrok, and the same still applies today.

We are getting letters from her family together, that combined with photos will show that we have been together, and indeed lived together for all this time. In reality it should be fairly obvious, as we both get mail here, but still, it makes me nervous that somebody's bad day (the IO) can make our life living hell...

I am planning Spousal OUTLAND after sugegstions from here. and we have no negative factors (I have no skeletons in the closet that I know of) and I am from a 'western country', Norway.

Anyways, the whole thing makes me shake at times...
Cheers
H.

 

[smrty]

ive been living with my spouse for the last 5 years.. my passport shows this.. when i entered.. and left to visit .. and the passport renewals.. (which i did through the embassy) plus my kids citizenship and passport renewals...

we are young and dont have joint bank accounts -- but pool our money..
our rent is not in writing rather by "word"

no insurance... or wills...
if they have questions then they can come and visit our town.

 

[TheHal]

Problem is that YOU have to prove everything, they don't have to. So if they think your evidence is lacking, they'll as k for more or reject your application...

Anyways, I think I have all the T's crossed, and now just working on dotting the I's...
Cheers
H.
PS Still nervous about the whole process tho.